Worthy of preservation
Grant awarded to restore fog signal
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EAGLE HARBOR - The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has awarded a $100,000 Rural Heritage Partnership Grant to the Keweenaw County Historical Society (KCHS) to fund the systematic structural rehabilitation of the historic 1895 Eagle Harbor Fog Signal Building.
The funding allocation, announced Thursday by the Michigan Strategic Fund, is part of a broader $673,000 rural reinvestment package distributed across eight Michigan counties, including Iron and Keweenaw in the Upper Peninsula. The program utilizes federal allocations from the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grants Program, administered by the National Park Service, to stabilize properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
KCHS board member Dorothy Jamison confirmed the grant will be utilized to repair and stabilize the building's original 1895 corrugated iron-plate exterior panels and remediate deteriorated roofing infrastructure. The engineering upgrades aim to halt ongoing interior water infiltration, providing a completely weathertight shell to safeguard the site’s ongoing educational and public museum programming.
Constructed in 1895 to house a steam-powered fog signal, the building’s explicit purpose was to warn mariners of the rocks and reefs along this section of Lake Superior. The acoustic signal was activated during intense periods of weather and lake fog when the station’s main light tower was less effective.
To withstand the harsh environment and retain heat, the building features ten-inch-thick walls insulated with sawdust and encased inside and out with sheet metal. In its active service era, the structure housed the heavy boilers, compressors, and mechanical equipment required to support the signal. A pair of eighteen-inch whistles mounted to the roof utilized direct steam pressure to blast the warning.
In later years, the facility was upgraded with an air-driven diaphone foghorn, which produced a signature, deep-throated warning signal capable of traveling long distances across the open water. A radio beacon transmitter was subsequently installed in the building in 1929 to operate in direct conjunction with the foghorn. The station’s fog signal was officially decommissioned in 1978, replaced by an automated bell buoy anchored near the entrance to Eagle Harbor. Following its transfer to local preservationists, the Keweenaw County Historical Society formally opened the rehabilitated building as a public museum on July 17, 1983.
"This grant allows KCHS to restore the Fog Signal Building’s original 1895 iron-plate exterior while preserving the evidence of the many changes in how it functioned over the years, so the building can keep telling its story to the current generation and those that follow," stated Gerald L. Hintz, Jr., KCHS project coordinator.
Hintz said that as a core component of the Eagle Harbor Light Station Complex, the facility remains vital to educating the public on the early maritime shipping corridors that served as the primary industrial lifelines for the peninsula’s early copper mining boom.
Dorothy Jamison, KCHS board trustee and curator of the Eagle Harbor Historical Museum, said the grant is significant.
"It means everything," she said, "because that building is historic and SHPO is obviously the state historic preservation, and they found that our building was worthy of a preservation grant."
Jamison said the historical society relies on grants to fund its infrastructure repairs, such as a previous SHPO grant that helped to fund the restoration of the lighthouse tower a couple of years ago.
"SHPO is a huge part of our maintaining the history of the Keweenaw," she said.
Jamison said while the fog signal building is not in a dilapidated state, the heavy corrugated metal-sheathed roof roof leaks and needs repairs.
"I don't know if it's original," she said, "but it's got to be close to it."
While the roof is not in danger of collapse, she said, the interior of the building contains many valuable displays.
"We can't have a chance of destroying these amazing displays that we have," said Jamison, "so we have to keep the building as safe and sound as we can."
Jamison said the KCHB has talked about restoring the structure for years, but costs have been prohibitive to restore the roof with historical accuracy, particularly because the complex is on the Register of Historic Places.
"They have strict rules and regulations," she said, "so, we want to make sure we're doing things the right way."